JP4154897B2 - Method for purifying gamma-butyrolactone - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for purifying gamma-butyrolactone useful as a raw material for N-methylpyrrolidone or as an electrolyte solvent.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Gamma-butyrolactone is produced by a method such as a hydrogenation reaction of maleic anhydride or succinic anhydride or a dehydrogenation reaction of 1,4-butanediol.
The production of gamma-butyrolactone has a problem that it is difficult to separate gamma-butyrolactone from aldehydes such as 4-hydroxybutanal and 4-oxobutanal produced during the reaction and hemiacetals such as 2-hydroxytetrahydrofuran. is there.
[0003]
As described in JP-A No. 11-286482, from a crude gamma butyrolactone, a two-column distillation column is used to distill off a lower boiling point than gamma butyrolactone in the first column, and then in the second column. A method of distilling and obtaining purified gamma-butyrolactone by vacuum distillation, or using a single-column distillation tower, discharging low-boiling products and high-boiling products from the top and bottom of the tower, respectively, and obtaining purified gamma-butyrolactone as a side stream. Thus, a method for separating a high boiling point substance is performed. By such a method, gamma-butyrolactone having a purity of 99% or more, further 99.5% or more can be obtained. However, in these methods, it is difficult to remove aldehydes and hemiacetals contained in the crude gamma butyrolactone, particularly tetrahydrofurano-2-oxybutanal having a boiling point close to that of gamma butyrolactone.
[0004]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-286482 describes a purification method in which an acidic substance is added to crude gamma butyrolactone to convert tetrahydrofurano-2-oxybutanal to a high boiling point product, followed by distillation. However, this method is problematic for industrial implementation because of the cost associated with the use of acidic materials and the corrosion of equipment.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
An object of the present invention is to provide an industrially advantageous method for highly purifying gamma-butyrolactone.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
As a result of intensive studies to solve the above problems, the present inventors have introduced crude gamma butyrolactone from the vicinity of the top of the distillation column and distilled it, and aldehydes and hemiacetals having lower boiling points than gamma butyrolactone are distilled. The present invention is completed by finding out that aldehydes and hemiacetals can be efficiently removed while distilling quickly from the column and reducing the production of tetrahydrofurano-2-oxybutanal and the like in the distillation column. It came to.
[0007]
That is, the gist of the present invention is that crude gamma butyrolactone is introduced into the distillation column from the top of the distillation column or from the introduction port located at less than 10% of the upper part of the distillation zone, and a component having a boiling point lower than that of gamma butyrolactone is introduced into the top of the column. And the purified gamma-butyrolactone is extracted from the side stream outlet or the bottom of the distillation column.
[0008]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail.
In the purification method according to the present invention, any gamma-butyrolactone produced by a method such as a hydrogenation reaction of maleic anhydride or succinic anhydride or a dehydrogenation reaction of 1,4-butanediol can be targeted. . Preferred is gamma butyrolactone produced by dehydrogenation of 1,4-butanediol.
[0009]
This reaction is publicly known, and as a catalyst, a solid catalyst such as a nickel catalyst, a cobalt catalyst, a palladium catalyst, a copper catalyst, or a copper-chromium catalyst improved with various promoters, or a homogeneous complex catalyst such as a ruthenium complex catalyst. It has been known. Particularly preferred as the object of the present invention is gamma butyrolactone obtained by dehydrogenating 1,4-butanediol in the presence of a homogeneous complex catalyst.
[0010]
In order to produce gamma-butyrolactone by dehydrogenating 1,4-butanediol in the presence of a homogeneous complex catalyst, the catalyst, 1,4-butanediol, and gamma-butyrolactone produced by the reaction, 4-hydroxybutanol are usually used. A reaction product solution containing aldehydes such as nal and hemiacetals such as 2-hydroxytetrahydrofuran is distilled in a distillation column to separate the catalyst, unreacted 1,4-butanediol, and gamma butyrolactone. The dehydrogenation reaction also proceeds in the distillation column, and the above aldehydes and hemiacetals are produced together with gamma-butyrolactone. These aldehydes and hemiacetals are rapidly dehydrogenated in the presence of a catalyst to become gamma butyrolactone, but this dehydrogenation reaction does not proceed in the absence of a catalyst, and tetrahydrofurano- having a boiling point close to that of gamma butyrolactone. It changes to 2-oxybutanal. In addition, a reaction occurs in which the produced tetrahydrofurano-2-oxybutanol is decomposed again into aldehydes and hemiacetals. According to the study by the present inventors, these reactions are likely to occur under conditions of 100 ° C. or higher.
[0011]
Therefore, when gamma-butyrolactone containing aldehydes and hemiacetals is distilled by a conventional method, these reactions occur in the distillation column, and it is difficult to obtain high-purity gamma-butyrolactone.
In the purification method of the present invention, the crude gamma butyrolactone is introduced from the top of the distillation column or the inlet at a position less than 10% in the upper part of the distillation zone. By this operation, aldehydes and hemiacetals can be vaporized and distilled off from the top of the tower before tetrahydrofurano-2-oxybutanal and the like are produced. The crude gamma butyrolactone is preferably introduced at 120 ° C. or lower, particularly 100 ° C. or lower. Note that the position of less than 10% of the upper part of the distillation zone means that the distillation operation excluding the reboiler part and the condenser part in the distillation column, that is, the part where gas-liquid contact is performed, for example, if there is a packed column, there is a packing. It means the band.
[0012]
In addition to 4-hydroxybutanal and 2-hydroxytetrahydrofuran, crude gamma-butyrolactone contains components with lower boiling points than gamma-butyrolactone, such as tetrahydrofuran, dihydrofuran, water, butanol, acetic acid, butyric acid, dimethyl succinate, etc. It is. In the method of the present invention, it is preferable to use crude gamma butyrolactone in which the concentration of these low-boiling components is reduced in advance by preliminary distillation so that the total concentration of 4-hydroxybutanal and 2-hydroxytetrahydrofuran is 2% by weight or less. . More preferably, these concentrations are 1% by weight or less, particularly 0.4% by weight or less.
[0013]
Purified gamma butyrolactone is withdrawn from the side stream outlet or bottom of the distillation column. Since high boiling point impurities may be mixed at the bottom of the column, it is preferable to extract purified gamma butyrolactone from the side flow outlet. In order to avoid contamination with high-boiling substances and avoid contamination with 4-hydroxybutanal and 2-hydroxytetrahydrofuran, the side outlet port is in the range of 1 to 50%, particularly 20 to 40% from the bottom of the distillation section. It is preferable to provide in the inside position.
[0014]
The column top temperature is preferably low, and is usually 150 ° C. or lower. It is preferably 120 ° C. or lower, particularly 100 ° C. or lower. Moreover, it is preferable to set it as 5 degreeC or more for tower top cooling cost and freeze prevention.
What is necessary is just to set the pressure at the time of distillation according to tower | column top temperature.
The reflux ratio is preferably low in order to suppress the reaction between aldehydes and hemiacetals in the distillation column. A reflux ratio of 100 to 1, particularly 30 to 1 is preferred.
[0015]
In the distillation column, when the amount of introduction per unit time is 100 parts by weight, the amount of distillation at the top of the column is 1-30, preferably 10-30, and the flow rate for extracting purified gamma butyrolactone is 90-60. preferable.
As the distillation column, any conventional column such as a packed column or a plate column can be used, but the theoretical number of distillation is preferably 5 or more, particularly 10 to 50. A distillation column having more than 50 stages is not preferable for economical efficiency, operation, and safety management for the construction of the distillation column.
[0016]
【Example】
EXAMPLES Hereinafter, although an Example demonstrates this invention still in detail, this invention is not limited to a following example, unless the summary is exceeded. The purity of the purified gamma butyrolactone was measured using gas chromatography.
Example 1
Crude gamma butyrolactone containing a total of 0.38% by weight of 4-hydroxybutanal and 2-hydroxytetrahydrofuran at 75 ° C. was introduced into a 40-stage glass Oldershaw distillation column from the top of the column at 100 parts by weight / hour. Continuous operation was performed at a pressure of 40 mmHg and a reflux ratio of 60, with a tower top temperature of 110.2 ° C. and a tower bottom temperature of 131.4 ° C.
[0017]
Low-boiling components at 20 parts by weight / hour were extracted from the top of the column, 70 parts by weight / gamma-butyrolactone was extracted from the 30th stage from the top of the column, and high-boiling components were extracted from the bottom of the column at 10 parts by weight / hour. The extraction temperature of gamma butyrolactone was 125.0 ° C.
The resulting gamma-butyrolactone had a purity of 99.96% by weight and contained 35 ppm by weight of tetrahydrofuranyl-2-oxybutanol.
[0018]
Comparative Example 1
In Example 1, the same procedure as in Example 1 was conducted, except that crude gamma butyrolactone containing 0.38% by weight of 4-hydroxybutanal and 2-hydroxytetrahydrofuran was introduced at 100 g / hr in the 20th stage from the top of the column. Then, continuous distillation was performed.
[0019]
The resulting gamma-butyrolactone had a purity of 99.65% by weight and contained 630 ppm by weight of tetrahydrofuranyl-2-oxybutanol.

Claims (7)

Crude gamma butyrolactone is introduced into the distillation column from the top of the distillation column or from the inlet at a position less than 10% of the upper part of the distillation zone. Is extracted from the side stream outlet or the bottom of the distillation column. 2. The process according to claim 1, wherein the crude gamma-butyrolactone is introduced from the top of the distillation column. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the crude gamma butyrolactone is produced by dehydrogenation of 1,4-butanediol. The method according to claim 3, wherein the dehydrogenation reaction of 1,4-butanediol is carried out in the presence of a homogeneous complex catalyst. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the crude gamma butyrolactone comprises 4-hydroxybutanal and 2-hydroxytetrahydrofuran. 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the total concentration of 4-hydroxybutanal and 2-hydroxytetrahydrofuran is 2% by weight or less. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the purified gamma-butyrolactone is extracted from a side flow outlet located at a position in the range of 10 to 50% from the bottom of the distillation section of the distillation column.